1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an information exchange system for exchanging information between a road-side communication unit and a vehicle-mounted communication unit in a traffic information system.
2. Description of the Related Art
As an information exchanging technology for exchanging information between a radio communication equipment mounted on a traveling vehicle and a radio communication equipment having narrow communication region on the road, which later radio communication equipment is installed on the road-side, there have been methods to realize bidirectional communication between the road-side radio communication equipment which will be occasionally referred to as xe2x80x9croad-side unitxe2x80x9d, and the vehicle-mounted radio communication equipment which will by occasionally referred to as xe2x80x9cvehicle-mounted unitxe2x80x9d, by providing a vehicle detector disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. Heisei 6-96387, optical receiver for a high speed data transmission disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. Heisei 6-276157, TDMA network protocol structure for reader-transponder communication disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. Heisei 6-61937.
In Japan, it has been started an information service
In Japan, it has been started an information service called VICS (Vehicle Information and Communication System) for mainly transmitting a traffic related information from the road-side unit to the vehicle-mounted unit. In VICS, a narrow region radio communication, a radio wave beacon system and an optical beacon system are employed and a wide region radio communication, an FM multiplex system is employed.
As a vehicle-mounted unit adapted for VICS, various types of equipment, such as a VICS receiver unit disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. Heisei 9-133535, for example, have been put into practice. Regularly updated traffic related information, such as traffic-jam information, travel information, accident information, construction information and so forth, is transmitted to the vehicle. Amongst, the optical beacon system utilizes the vehicle detector disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. Heisei 6-96387 and includes information communication function from the vehicle-mounted unit to the road-side unit. Currently, studies have been in progress to transmit destination information and travel time information of the vehicle from the vehicle-mounted unit to the road-side unit.
By using a narrow region road-vehicle communication, such as the VICS, the traffic related information can be transmitted to the vehicle. However, in the currently available service, the information to be transmitted to the vehicle is limited to the traffic related information. It has been considered that a system for improving convenience of a vehicular driver by transmitting a service information of service providers along the traveling road, such as restaurant, gasoline station, shop, in addition to or in place of the traffic related information.
However, in the narrow region road-vehicle communication, since a period, in which the vehicle passes the communication region, is limited, an amount of information to be transmitted to the vehicle is limited. Therefore, it becomes necessary to certain selection of service information to be provided in order to establish a system which can provide practically useful service information.
In the conventional system providing the traffic related information, in consideration of a certain range around the beacon, traffic information relating to roads within that range is picked up and transmitted to the vehicle. A selection range is varied depending upon kind of the road in such a manner that traffic information of greater distance for the road of greater importance. As set forth above, a viewpoint from the road is dominant for the traffic information. Therefore, the information to be provided is uniform for all of vehicles mounting the radio communication units.
On the other hand, concerning the information of the service providers along the road, amount of information becomes greater for providing information of content of services more accurately. On the other hand, while the traffic information is the information commonly required for all drivers of the vehicles, content of service information to be desired or required for each individual driver is different. Therefore, if manner of selection of information as being conventionally taken in the traffic information is used as is, it is possible that the information desired or required by the driver cannot be provided appropriately.
The present invention has been worked out in view of the problems set forth above. Therefore, it is an object of the present invention to provide information exchange system which permits a service provider to transmit information concerning a service content to a traveling vehicle.
Another object of the present invention is to provide an information exchange system which can transmit a service information edited depending upon a demanded condition set by a user on a vehicle side, in order to effectively use a communication capacity.
A further object of the present invention is to provide an information exchange system which can vary detail degree or preference of information to be provided depending upon a positional relationship between the service provider and the vehicle.
A still further object of the present invention is to provide an information exchange method realizing a road-side unit or a vehicle-mounted unit constituting the information exchange system, or said information exchange system per se, which can achieve at least one of the foregoing objects.
According to one aspect of the present invention, an information exchange system comprises:
a vehicle-mounted unit mounted on a vehicle;
a road-side unit providing information to the vehicle-mounted unit using a road-vehicle radio communication;
the vehicle-mounted unit including receiving means for receiving information transmitted from the road-side unit through a radio communication and transferring means for transferring at least a part of a content of the received information to a vehicular occupant;
the road-side unit including storage means for storing information to be transmitted to the vehicle-mounted unit and transmitting means for transmitting information to the vehicle-mounted unit through the radio communication;
the storage means of the road-side unit for storing at least information relating to a service provider where a service is provided at the location thereof; and
the road-side unit further including editing means for editing information stored in the storage means on the basis of a relative position between the service provider and a communication region of the transmitting means and generating an edited information to be transmitted from the transmitting means.
In the preferred construction, the vehicle-mounted unit may further include setting means for permitting the vehicular occupant to set information and second transmitting means for transmitting the set information to the road-side unit through the radio communication;
the road-side unit may further include second receiving means for receiving information transmitted from the vehicle-mounted unit through the radio communication and parsing means for paring the received information; and
the editing means of the road-side unit may perform editing process by using at least one of the relative position and a result of parsing by the parsing means.
The information relating to the service provider stored the storage means of the road-side unit may be a plurality of information obtained with respect to a particular service provider, which the plurality of information can be edited by the editing process of the editing means.
The storage means of the road-side unit may store at least information relating to a plurality of service providers and kind information for respectively specifying kind of the plurality of service providers or information thereof;
the vehicle-mounted unit may further include kind setting means for setting kind of the service providers and information thereto to be transmitted to the vehicular occupant in response to external operation, and selecting means for selecting information transmitted from the road-side unit using the kind information and set kind information; and
the transferring means of the vehicle-mounted unit may transfer the selected information to the vehicular occupant.
The storage means of the road-side unit may store at least information relating to a plurality of service providers and kind information for respectively specifying kind of the plurality of service providers or information thereof;
the vehicle-mounted unit may further include kind setting means for setting kind of the service providers and information thereto to be transmitted to the vehicular occupant in response to external operation, and selecting means for selecting information transmitted from the road-side unit using the kind information and set kind information;
the transferring means of the vehicle-mounted unit may transfer the selected information to the vehicular occupant;
the second transmitting means of the vehicle-mounted unit may transmit information relating to the set kind to the road-side unit; and
the editing means of the road-side unit may perform editing process using the information relating to kind when the information relating to kind is included in information transmitted from the vehicle-mounted unit, for generating information to be transmitted to the vehicle-mounted unit.
The storage means of the road-side unit may store at least a plurality of information of different detail degrees with respect to one service provider and detail degree information for specifying respective of a plurality of information of different detail degrees;
the vehicle-mounted unit may further include detail degree setting means for setting information of detail degree to be transferred to the vehicular occupant in response to external operation and selecting means for selecting information transmitted from the road-side unit using the detail degree information and set detail degree when the detail degree information is increased in information provided from the road-side unit; and
the transferring means of the vehicle-mounted unit may transfer the selected information to the vehicular occupant.
The storage means of the road-side unit may store at least a plurality of information of different detail degrees with respect to one service provider and detail degree information for specifying respective of a plurality of information of different detail degrees;
the vehicle-mounted unit may further include detail degree setting means for setting information of detail degree to be transferred to the vehicular occupant in response to external operation and selecting means for selecting information transmitted from the road-side unit using the detail degree information and set detail degree when the detail degree information is increased in information provided from the road-side unit;
the transferring means of the vehicle-mounted unit may transfer the selected information to the vehicular occupant;
the second transmitting means of the vehicle-mounted unit may transmit information relating to set detail degree to the road-side unit; and
the editing means of the road-side unit may perform editing process using the information relating to detail degree when the information relating to detail degree is contained in information transmitted from the vehicle-mounted unit.
The storage means of the road-side unit may further store information relating to a plurality of service providers and information relating to contact points for radio communication with each of the service providers;
the vehicle-mounted unit may further include service provider selecting means for selecting a particular service provider among a plurality of service providers indicated in the transmitted information when the information relating to contact points is included in information transmitted from the road-side unit, and second radio communication means for performing radio communication with the selected service provider using the information relating to the contact point.
The storage means of the road-side unit may store information relating to a plurality of service providers and information relative to relative positions between each service provider and the transmitting means; and
the vehicle-mounted unit may further include re-sorting means for controlling operation of the transferring means for varving mode of transferring of information relating to a plurality of service providers transmitted from the road-side unit for reflecting the relative positions when information relating to relative position is included in information transmitted from the road-side unit.
Information set by the setting means of the vehicle-mounted unit may include information relating to a kind of vehicle;
the storage means of the road-side unit may store information relating to the service provider with correspondence to a vehicular kind, to which information is to be provided preferentially; and
the editing means may edit information stored in the storage means using information relating to vehicular kind transmitted from the vehicle-mounted unit and generates information directed to the vehicle which is the source of the information relating to the vehicular kind.
Information set by the setting means of the vehicle-mounted unit may include information indicative of a destination of the vehicle;
the storage means of the road-side unit may store information relating to the service provider with correspondence to a destination, to which information is to be provided preferentially; and
the editing means may edit information stored in the storage means using information relating to destination transmitted from the vehicle-mounted unit and generates information directed to the vehicle which is the source of the information relating to the destination.
The vehicle-mounted unit may further include second storage means storing information, storing means for selectively storing information transmitted from the road-side unit in the second storage means, and deleting means for selectively deleting information stored in the second storage means.
The road-side unit may further include detecting means for detecting vehicular information relating to a traveling condition of the vehicle passing, the detecting means being installed corresponding to position of the communication region of the transmitting means; and
the editing means may perform editing process using the detected vehicular information for generating information to be transmitted from the transmitting means.
The road-side unit may further include detecting means for detecting information indicative of illuminating condition of a traffic light set at a position corresponding to the communication region of the transmitting means; and
the editing means may perform editing process using the detected information for generating information to be transmitted from the transmitting means.
The road-side unit may further includes managing means for managing information indicative of a time stored in the storage means;
the storage means may store information relating to the service provider and a time, at which the information becomes effective; and
the editing means may perform editing process using the information of time recognized that the information becomes effective by the managing means, for generating information to be transmitted from the transmitting means.
The vehicle-mounted unit may further include detecting means for detecting a conditional amount of the vehicle which mounts the vehicle-mounted unit; and
the setting means may vary information to be set depending upon the detected conditional amount.
The road-side unit may transmit a plurality of information relating to the service provider and information indicative of effective range in time or region, to the vehicle-mounted unit; and
the vehicle-mounted unit may include means for making judgment for each of information transmitted whether it falls within the effective range in time or in region, or not, for deleting information judged as being out of the effective range.
The detecting means of the road-side unit may detect an average speed of the vehicle passing; and
the transmitting means may vary a communication capacity of radio communication to be used depending upon the average speed.
According to another aspect of the present invention, a road-side unit comprises:
storage means for storing information to be transmitted to a vehicle through a road-vehicle radio communication;
transmitting means for transmitting information to the vehicle;
the storage means storing at least information relating to a service provider where a service is provided at the location thereof; and
editing means for editing information stored in the storage means on the basis of a relative position between the service provider and a communication region of the transmitting means and generating an edited information to be transmitted from the transmitting means.
According to a further aspect of the present invention, a vehicle-mounted unit comprises:
receiving means for receiving information transmitted from a road-side unit through a radio communication;
transferring means for transferring at least a part of a content of the received information to a vehicular occupant;
the receiving means receiving a plurality of different information relating to at least one of a plurality of service providers where services are provided at locates thereof; and
selecting means for receiving an operation for selecting information to be transferred to the vehicular occupant among a plurality of information received.
According to a still further aspect of the present invention, a moving body
passing through a communication region capable of road-vehicle radio communication and being controlled moving operation by a driver, and
mounting a vehicle-mounted unit comprising:
receiving means for receiving information transmitted from a road-side unit through a radio communication;
transferring means for transferring at least a part of a content of the received information to a vehicular occupant;
the receiving means receiving a plurality of different information relating to at least one of a plurality of service providers where services are provided at locates thereof; and
selecting means for receiving an operation for selecting information to be transferred to the vehicular occupant among a plurality of information received.
According to a yet further aspect of the present invention, a method for exchanging information for providing information from a side of road to a vehicle using a road-vehicle radio communication, comprises:
editing information relating to a service provider where a service is provided at a location thereof on the basis of a relative relationship between the service provider and a region where the road-vehicle radio communication is possible, and generating a transmission information to be transmitted; and
transmitting the transmission information to the vehicle passing through the region where road-vehicle radio communication is possible.